Tag Archives: Vito's

Time to Say Goodbye to Something Else

There are some people I know that when I say, “9th & Madison”, they know immediately I’m talking about Vito’s.

For those folks, I also don’t need me to add words like “restaurant” or “bar.” It was just Vito’s.

Back in 1953, Vito Santoro and his brother Jimmie launched an Italian restaurant at the height of the Rat Pack era, with a cocktail culture that reflected the times, along with live music, and East Coast family-style Italian food.

During my University of Washington years, Vito’s wasn’t on my radar. It wasn’t until 1980, when I returned from my 3-year tour of radio duty in Yakima, that my boss–KOMO radio’s Larry Nelson–introduced me to this special place.

Critics of Vito’s complained that it was too dark inside. There were no windows. It was like a gangster’s hideaway.

And perhaps it was.

All I knew was that after working with Larry for a while and getting to know his routine, you could always count on a couple of things. Every weekday morning, he’d introduce Bryan Johnson‘s 15-minute morning report and then dash to the restroom for his morning shave. Another thing locked into his schedule: Fridays at 11:30, the “Family Table” was reserved for him at Vito’s.

I survived a couple of those lunches. It wasn’t a weekly event for me, but my liver still hasn’t forgiven me for the 2-3 times a year I’d join the party. Larry and his posse would sit around a circular table, order food, drink lots of wine and talk about the week or just reminisce about old times. A standard lunch would easily run two hours plus.

And most Fridays, Vito would come out and say hi to the table, sometimes with his wife Mollie, who had stopped by for a visit. 

Interesting to note: while all of his brothers married Swedes, Vito married a Norwegian. Something we have in common!

One Columbus Day, Lar invited me to join him for Vito’s annual fund-raiser at Our Lady of Mount Virgin Catholic Church in what had become known as Seattle’s “Garlic Gulch” neighborhood. It was a benefit for the Jimmie Santoro Scholarship Fund, honoring his brother that he had lost back in 1970. Resembling a scene out of “The Godfather”, I remember Larry pointing a judge over here and a politician over there. That was one of Larry’s favorite films and he quoted it often. For those of you playing Larry Nelson trivia, he claimed that Vito was his actual Godfather!

When KOMO decided to trim me from their budget in 1984 and I headed over the lake to work at KLSY in Bellevue, my visits to Vito’s pretty much stopped. It was a rare treat when I’d meet up with Lar and his gang again at the Family Table.

Staying in touch with Larry over the years, I heard about Vito’s declining health, which eventually forced him to sell the restaurant. Even after he lost both legs to diabetes, Vito would still occasionally sneak in to visit his former restaurant. He passed away in 2000.

A series of new owners came and went. While maintaining the name, it just wasn’t the same vibe. There were redesigns. My God, one owner even had the windows allowing daylight to get in!

In 2010, a couple of guys named Jeff Scott and Greg Lundgren bought this Seattle institution and began a major restoration of the space. For old time’s sake a few years ago, I planned to meet up there with Bruce Johnson, one of Lar’s good buddies, to talk old times. We both arrived, only to find that Vito’s was no longer serving lunch, only dinner.
I’m sure I remember hearing that the restaurant had closed due to a fire last year, but last weekend, when Bruce sent me some photos he had taken of what was once such a majestic place, I had to accept that it’s now just a matter of time before it’s torn down and turned into more apartments or condos.

Such a mighty fall from when it was THE place to be.

Yes, that’s Larry in the back left corner and yes, that IS a gun!

(one way to insure prompt service without tipping)

I feel privileged to have caught this place in the last stretch of its hey days. Besides enjoying that authentic Italian cuisine, I got to get to know Larry’s inner circle—the a fore-mentioned Bruce, Tom, Lloydie, Sol, Doc Peterson, famous Seattle lawyer Al Bianchi, and so many others.

It’s where the “Who’s Who” of Seattle would slip in and out.  Here’s a great collection of stories to illustrate what I mean. There was the naked lady on the tile in the men’s restroom. Here’s another great article that goes deep into the powerful and famous that visited Vito’s.

Besides creating such an amazing atmosphere and iconic restaurant, Vito was best known as someone who just wanted to help people. And, closest to my heart, he was a die-hard Husky Football fan. A team he embraced even before his younger brother Danny played for the Dawgs back in 1949. As a season ticket holder, he attended every home game for 32 consecutive years, his streak only snapped when he was hospitalized in 1979.

I definitely know he’ll be watching tonight when the Dawgs go for their 15th win of the season and a long-overdue solo National Championship

As for the restaurant where so many memories were made, it’s most likely on a fast path to the Seattle history books. Seattle Time’s reporter Bethany Jean Clement wrote a nice article about Vito’s that inspired me to drop her a note. I asked if she could shed any light on any plans for its future. She replied, “I know that some of the furnishings were salvaged, but it does look unlikely to come back as Vito’s, per se… I spent many happy hours there myself! Sigh.”

Vito’s wasn’t where the three-martini lunch was invented, but it was celebrated there daily. Seattle Mayor Charles Royer was known to be a regular. It’s where Royer and Senator Warren Magnuson had dinner to lament Maggie’s loss in a U.S. Senate race to Slade Gorton. When Senator Henry Jackson died, a wake was held for him in the back room. It was the place where Snoop Dogg and Dan Akroyd laughed while sharing a booth in 1999, both in town for the opening of the Experience Music Project. More stories to read here.

However, these days, it looks like this.

If I do an inventory on all the people, places and things I’ve been able to meet and experience over the years, I can’t help but feel incredibly blessed. I especially appreciate those special times I had a front-row seat to everything I saw happen at Vito’s.

But once again, it’s time to say goodbye to something else.

Tim Hunter

Another One For The History Books

No doubt. I’ve lived a very fortunate life.

I’ve been able to partake in a lot of things that were part of a world seldom seen. I got a crash course on some of those back when I was Larry Nelson’s producer at KOMO Radio, from 1980-1984. Over 4-1/2 years of some pretty crazy adventures.

With KOMO Radio being “Your Husky Station”, I got to meet some of my University of Washington football heroes, like Coach Don James, his wife Carol, and the voice of the Huskies, Bob Rondeau.

As celebrities came to town and were up for interviews, I got to meet (OK, I’m dating myself here) Steve Allen, James Cocoa, Timothy Leary, Tiny Tim, Rip Taylor, Patty Duke, James Doohan and so many more. There was the time that Larry and I went backstage with Wayne Newton. Prior to the interview, a guy straight out of “Goodfellas” to me to make sure Larry didn’t bring up a certain topic. It was the first thing he did. The guy looked at me like he was about to ask, “What size cement shoes do you wear?”

I learned a lot about broadcasting, the history of Fisher Broadcasting and KOMO radio and heard a lot of behind-the-scene stories. I remember a fair amount. And a certain collection of memories were jostled loose this week when I heard the sad news that Vito’s Restaurant at 9th & Madison in downtown Seattle was closed and may not ever open up again.

One of the greatest writers ever to ink up the pages of the Seattle Times, Erik Lacitis, wrote an outstanding article about several restaurants in town, including Vito’s. This is where I read the news.

Before I dive into my memories of this legendary establishment, read all about the history of Vito’s from historylink.org right here.

OK, now that you know some of the characters, let me begin.

As Larry’s producer, we became quite close. We shared an office that couldn’t have been bigger than 10-feet by 10-feet and because Lar once complained on the radio that we didn’t a window to look out, a listener actually created a window frame with a mirror in it and dropped it off at the station. It hung in our office.

The daily routine for my 4-1/2 years was to arrive at 4am and start writing up stuff for Larry to use, or produce some interviews for him to air. Oh, there could be variations during the week, but at 11am on Friday, it was off to Vito’s Restaurant.

I didn’t go every week and looking back, I’m glad, because frankly, my liver wouldn’t have survived. For Larry and his Friday lunch gang, Vito’s always reserved the “Family Table”, a round table that sat 10 or so in the back of the restaurant. That’s where Nelson and his court would gather to discuss the past week, consume wineries of wine and enjoy the Italian cuisine.

Thanks to my occasional lunches there, I got to meet Larry’s actual godfather, the owner of the restaurant,Vito Santoro. A couple of times, I even got to chat with Vito’s wife, Molly. What a sweetheart!

With each lunch, you never knew who all would be there, although Lar had a cast of regulars that I came to know and am still in touch with to thise day. At least those who are still around.

Vito’s was dark, Italian and private. You minded your own business. My familiarity got me invited to a fundraiser at the Our Lady of Mount Virgin Church, a benefit Italian feast for the Jimmy Santoro Scholarship fund, a charity Vito started to honor the memory of his brother. At the event, Larry had a lot of fun pointing out the judges and politicians who attended the event. Enough said.

Ater my KOMO days, visits to Vito’s were few, far and in-between, as the restaurant went through several owners and fought to survive. I managed to once take my wife there, meeting up with one of the old Friday Lunch gang and his guest for old time’s sake.

A couple of years later, my buddy Bruce–part of that Friday lunch bunch–and I tried to meet for lunch at Vito’s, only to arrive and find it closed. They didn’t serve lunch anymore.

While it underwent some remodeling over the years in the dining room, the bar remained a trip back in time. Especially, if you looked on the photo wall, where you could still find a picture or two of Larry Nelson, from back in the heyday. Geeze, we’re talking 40 years ago. Wow.

As the years go by, I keep looking back and thinking, “Damn, I was lucky.”

Earlier this year, I wrote about another one of the restaurants mentioned in that article above, the Northlake Tavern, which I managed to visit one more time before it closed forever.

And now Vito’s is gone. Another one for the history books.

Tim Hunter